Astros Have Another Pitcher On The Rise

In nearly any other farm system, Albert Abreu would already be a top 10 prospect. With the talent-rich Astros, Abreu is merely in the second wave of talent, behind the elite prospects like A.J. Reed, Alex Bregman and Francis Martes.

It might not take long for Abreu to join them as a possible Top 100 prospect in baseball. On Wednesday, the 20-year-old righthander showed four average to plus pitches for low Class A Quad Cities, with the easy delivery and athleticism to profile as a starting pitcher.

Signed out of the Dominican Republic for $185,000 in 2013, Abreu was throwing 87-91 mph, with sound mechanics, loose arm action and the physical projection in his 6-foot-2 frame to gain velocity. The fastball spike arrived, with Abreu sitting in the low-to-mid 90s and topping out at 99 mph last year in Rookie-level Greeneville, where he ranked as the Appalachian League’s top pitching prospect.

What separates Abreu is that he’s shown he’s more than just a flamethrower. Abreu has the ability to manipulate three secondary pitches with good shape and action, throwing them for strikes and generating swing-and-miss with all three pitches. Yes, his ERA is 5.11 through his first three outings, but he has also struck out 36 percent of the batters he’s faced with 19 strikeouts and four walks in 12 1/3 innings.

Abreu’s most recent start was against low Class A Wisconsin (Brewers) on Wednesday, when he allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings with four hits, one walk and six strikeouts. While his fastball command needs to improve, he’s generally around the strike zone with it and was able to get multiple swings and misses on his fastball against Brewers shortstop Isan Diaz, one of the better hitting prospects in the Midwest League.

The most consistent secondary pitch last year for Abreu was his plus changeup. His changeup has late sink and fade and he sells it with the same arm speed as his fastball, getting several Wisconsin hitters out front and swinging over the top of the pitch, including this swing from Diaz.

Abreu has a slider and a curveball in his repertoire too, both of which flashed average or better on Wednesday. There is still some inconsistency with each pitch, but Abreu was able to freeze hitters by throwing his big-breaking curveball for strikes, both early in an at-bat and when he got into two-strike counts.

Abreu’s curveball was more reliable than his slider against Wisconsin, but when he snapped off a good slider, it flashed above-average with late action and two-plane depth. He used nearly his entire repertoire to put away Max McDowell, going changeup-slider-fastball for the three-pitch strikeout.

Between Martes, Joe Musgrove, David Paulino and Michael Feliz, the Astros have an impressive collection of pitching prospects at the upper levels, even after trading Mark Appel and Thomas Eshelman to the Phillies. In the lower levels of the system, Abreu is separating himself as the next Astros pitching prospect to watch.